Reality television: Encyclopedia II - Reality television - Types of reality TV

Reality television - Types of reality TV

There are a number of sub-categories in the genre known as reality television. In some, the viewer and the camera are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is often referred to as "fly on the wall" or cinéma vérité. COPS is a notable example of the genre. Other programs place contestants in competitions or artificial living environments (see Survivor). Often "plots" are constructed via editing or planned situations, with the results resembling soap operas — hence the term, docusoap.

Reality television - Celebrity reality vs. ordinary reality

Scholars have suggested that reality television's success is due to its ability to place ordinary people in extraordinary situations. For example, on the ABC show, The Bachelor, an eligible male dates a dozen women simultaneously, traveling on extraordinary dates to Napa Valley, California and Vail, Colorado. The converse is a recently emerged subset, in which extraordinary people (celebrities) are surrounded by ordinary circumstances. Examples include The Anna Nicole Show, The Osbournes, The Simple Life, The Surreal Life, and Newlyweds (featuring Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey).

Reality television - Hidden cameras

Another type of reality programming features hidden cameras rolling when random passersby encounter a staged situation. The reactions of the passersby can be funny to watch, but also reveal truths about the human condition. Allen Funt, an American pioneer in reality entertainment, led the way in the development of this type of show. He created Candid Microphone, which debuted on the ABC Radio Network in 1947, and the internationally successful Candid Camera, which first aired on television in 1953. He later produced a feature-length reality film in 1970 titled, What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? The film was a hidden-camera study of sexuality and mores of the time. In one staged situation, passersby encountered an interracial couple. Modern variants of this type of production, particularly the British Trigger Happy TV, typically stage humorous and/or bizarre situations such as actors in animal costumes pretending to copulate on a crowded sidewalk.

Reality television - Game shows

Another type of reality TV is the so-called "reality game shows", in which participants are filmed on a nearly-constant basis in an enclosed environment while competing to win a prize. There remains a large gray area between these and traditional game shows, which also involve non-actors in unscripted situations. One aspect that makes these shows more like reality television than other game shows is that the viewing public can play an active role in deciding the outcome. Usually this is done by eliminating participants (disapproval voting) or voting for the most popular choice to win (with some other voting system).

Probably the purest example of a reality game show is Big Brother, a show which still has incarnations in many countries around the world. The series takes its name from the all-seeing authority figure in George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which two-way television screens are fitted in every room, so that people's actions are monitored at all times. (Another work of science-fiction that went even further in predicting reality TV was Nigel Kneale's Year of the Sex Olympics.) In the American version of Big Brother, the concept of cast members getting voted off by the public extended only through the first season; in subsequent seasons, the show went with the more "traditional" approach of having contestants vote each other off.

There remains controversy over whether shows like the UK's Pop Idol (spun off in various countries, including in the U.S. as American Idol) and the similarly-globalized The Weakest Link and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire are truly reality game shows or simply modern incarnations of traditional game show or talent show formats. There does not seem to be much to distinguish these from older shows such as Star Search or The 64,000 Dollar Question, respectively, on the surface; nevertheless, their sudden rise in global popularity at the same time as the arrival of the reality craze leads many people to group such shows under the reality TV umbrella. The Apprentice, Dog Eat Dog and Fear Factor are also included in this group.

Reality television - Dating shows

Another form of reality TV is the relationship reality show, which follows contestants choosing the hand of a group of suitors. Over the course of the season, the suitors are eliminated one by one until the end, when only the contestant and the final suitor remains. The Bachelor would also fall into this category. Antecedents may be found in The Dating Game from the 1960s.

Reality television - Sport shows

This type of reality show recruits athletes to engage in sport competition during the show. The featured sport tends to be an individual sport as opposed to a team sport, since the goal is to produce individual winner or winners (depending on the number of divisions such as weight classes) at the end of the season. One match usually takes place in each episode, eliminating the loser. The Contender features boxing, while The Ultimate Fighter showcases mixed martial arts.

Reality television - Talk shows

Though the tradional format of a "talk show" is that of a host interviewing a featured guest or discussing a chosen topic with a guest or panel of guests, the advent of "trash talk" shows has often made people group the entire category in with reality television. Programs like Ricki Lake, The Jerry Springer Show and others generally recruit(ed) everyday guests by advertising a potential topic that producers were working on for a future program. Topics are frequently outrageous and are chosen in the interest of creating on screen drama, tension or outrageous behaviour. Though not explicitly reality television by traditional standards, this (allegedly) real depiction of someone's life, even if only in a brief interview format, is frequently considered akin to broader-scale reality T.V. programming.

Reality television - Analysis

Given that producers design the format of the show, as well as control the outcome of some of them, it is questionable how "real" reality television actually is. There is no doubt that producers are highly deliberate in their editing strategies, able to portray certain participants as heroes or villains, and guide the drama through altered chronology and selective presentation of events. Likewise, shows use carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage particular behaviors and conflicts. Yet there has been no clear indication that these programs are fully scripted or "rigged," as with the 1950s television quiz show scandals. One exception may be reality shows which revolve around sports: due to the participants being athletes who are attempting to establish their own name in the same sport in real life, the setting of such shows tends to be realistic and confrontational. The Contender became the first American reality show in which a contestant committed suicide after being eliminated from the show. In each season of The Ultimate Fighter, at least one participant has voluntarily withdrawn or expressed the desire to withdraw from the show due to competitive pressure.

Generally very specific contractual agreements signed by reality show participants/actors prevent them from commenting on the process in detail, which would publicly shed light on just how "real" the programs are. An exception is Irene from The Real World Seattle, who has done public speaking tours vehemenantly insisting that it is completely UNreal. Additionally a weblog surfaced in October of 2005 by an individual calling himself "Famous on TV"; in it he claims to currently be starring in a reality program (he will not give specifics) and he details the extensive details of the process. 1

Reality television has attracted criticism from those who feel that the pervasiveness of the genre on network television has come at the cost of scripted programming. There has also been concern expressed in the media by network executives that such programming is limited in its appeal for DVD reissue and syndication, although it remains lucrative for short-term profits. One series in particular defies this analysis. COPS has had huge success in syndication and direct response sales, as well as DVD in retail. Moreover, it has been a FOX staple since 1989, and is currently (2005) in its 18th season, defying all odds. By late 2004-early 2005, networks such as CNN were suggesting that the genre's popularity was waning in America, with long-running reality shows such as The Apprentice scoring lower-than-expected ratings, and many new shows such as FOX's Who's Your Daddy? (a controversial program in which a female contestant who had been adopted as a child had to guess the identity of her biological father) and CBS's The Will (about a real-life family squabbling over an inheritance) failing. On January 13, 2005, CNN reported that The Will had become one of a handful of series in television history to be cancelled after only one broadcast.

Reality TV is a cultural phenomenon that has allowed successful shows to be produced cheaply. However, these costs may increase. In June 2005, reality TV "writers"—who either write segments for shows or edit the hours of footage to create storylines—have come together through the Writers Guild of America to try to unionize. A union would require good working conditions, health benefits, and higher wages. These benefits are sometimes given to the workers, but they do not want to have to fight for them each time they work on a new show.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Types of reality TV", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki